How to Make Your NOOK eReader Library Private

When you allow someone to become your NOOK friend, you are — by default — allowing them to see any and all of the lendable books in your Barnes & Noble account. That might be just fine with you, or you might not want to open the doors to your library without any controls over what can be seen by others.

To protect your privacy or just to exercise a bit of control, you can change the privacy settings for lendable books. The process is similar but not identical on the NOOK Color and NOOK Simple Touch.

NOOK Color

To change the settings for lendable books, follow these steps:

Go to the NOOK Friends app.

Tap the Privacy button in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Locate and tap (as needed) the authorization checkbox.

To make any of your lendable books visible to friends, tap to place a checkmark in the box alongside I authorize my NOOK friends to see my lendable books. To make it so that none of your books can be seen by friends, leave the box unchecked.

If you have made your books visible, you will see a window listing all the books in your collection that are eligible for lending. Alongside each book is a toggle that reads Show/Hide.

Tap on the toggle to choose whether the title will be shown or hidden.

NOOK Simple Touch

To adjust the settings for lendable books, do this:

Tap Settings and then choose the Social Settings menu.

Locate the menu item called Manage Visibility of My LendMe Books. Tap the right arrow alongside the item.

At the top of the submenu is a control that reads, "Show all my lendable books to my NOOK Friends." Tap in the box to place a checkmark so that your collection will be visible to your NOOK Friends; if there is already a checkmark in the box, tap it to remove that marking and hide the display of your books.

If you have chosen to make your lendable books visible, you will see a list of your lendable books. Alongside each will be a toggle switch that says either Show or Hide.

Mark books as shown or hidden.

Tap to select Show if you want your NOOK Friends to see that title. Tap to select Hide to block this title from your NOOK Friends.